The search for life on ocean worlds
NASA has formed the Network for Ocean Worlds (NOW) to advance comparative studies to characterize Earth and other ocean worlds across their interiors, oceans, and cryospheres; to investigate their habitability; to search for biosignatures; and to understand life—in relevant ocean world analogues and beyond. The network is designed to accelerate ocean worlds research by facilitating communication among active research teams funded across NASA divisions and by expanding community-wide engagement.
As a NASA Astrobiology Research Coordination Network, NOW is organized around 4 key science themes and seeks to enrich the Ocean Worlds research community through pursuit of 5 priority areas of activity.
NOW Mission
- To Identify and stimulate novel directions of inquiry through enhanced communication within NASA’s ocean worlds PI community.
- To Pursue activities that both reveal and address critical knowledge gaps in ocean worlds research.
- To Stimulate and facilitate new ocean worlds collaborations to undertake high-impact interdisciplinary research.
- To Identify and integrate research on Earth and other ocean worlds (e.g. oceans, their interiors, and the cryosphere) to catalyze synergistic studies that identify the conditions and potential for life.
- To Cultivate and augment the training of a new generation of interdisciplinary ocean worlds researchers.
NOW research themes:
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Physical and Chemical Properties of Ocean Worlds
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Life Detection on Ocean Worlds
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Establishing Well-Validated Analog Study Sites for Ocean Worlds
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Coordinating Technology Development for Ocean Worlds Missions
NOW areas of activity:
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Supporting Membership and Mentorship
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Enhancing Communication within the NOW Network
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Developing Workshops and Meetings beyond the NOW Network
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Stimulating Research Synergies beyond the NOW Network
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Promoting Outreach beyond the NOW Network
Q: How Does NOW Work and Who is Welcome?
(A: Anyone interested in Ocean Worlds!)
NOW has four co-leads and a project coordinator, each with different expertise (see below), and a Steering Committee that is made up of leadership representatives from our companion early career organization Future Leaders for Ocean Worlds (FLOW) plus 1 representative from each NASA-funded team conducting Ocean Worlds research that chooses to join (currently 101 projects). All collaborators within each of those constituent projects are invited to join the Ocean Worlds Team as Members and, to provide opportunities for all researchers interested in Ocean Worlds, beyond those who have already secured relevant peer-reviewed funding from NASA, we also welcome anyone interested to apply to join as Affiliates.
Three key areas of interest
The Network for Ocean Worlds will help guide the search for life beyond Earth by broadening the base of oceanographic expertise throughout astrobiology, but particularly in three key areas:
Geophysics
Exploring the distinct geophysical evolution of ice-covered ocean worlds and the processes occurring at their ice-ocean and ocean-rock interfaces provides unique opportunities for comparative studies throughout the solar system, especially in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Ocean Systems
Ocean worlds provide a first opportunity for comparative studies between Earth and other planets that are not only critical to understanding habitability beyond Earth but also to a better understanding of Earth’s ability to sustain life through time.
Life
Analog and theoretical studies of resource exchange, the generation of life-supporting energy—especially at rock-water and ice-ocean interfaces, and signs of life in Earth’s cryosphere and ocean will advance our understanding of life on Earth and on ocean worlds.
Co-Lead Investigators
Shannon MacKenzie
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
Expertise:
Titan, Enceladus, sediments, spectroscopy, mission development, dunes
NOW Relevant Research Interests:
Titan, Enceladus
Biography:
I am originally from the Northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati. I received a BSc in Physics from the University of Louisville in 2012 and finished graduate school at the University of Idaho in 2017, earning a MSc and PhD. I was a post doc at JHU APL starting in 2018 and transitioned to staff in 2020. I worked closely with the Cassini VIMS team and am a science Co-I on Dragonfly.
Team Members:
Jason Barnes, Jason Soderblom
Chris German
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
https://directory.whoi.edu/profile/cgerman/
Chris German is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), where he uses his expertise to explore for and study seafloor fluid flow systems (hydrothermal vents, cold seeps) across a spectrum of geologic diversity. He is particularly interested in the geologic controls of such systems and their impacts on planet-scale biogeochemical cycles, and how they may serve as analogs relevant to the search for life on other ocean worlds. He previously served as the chief scientist for the U.S. National Deep Submergence Facility and continues to develop new tools, vehicles, and methodologies to improve the efficiency of deep ocean exploration. In addition to the Network for Ocean Worlds, German also leads NASA’s Exploring Ocean Worlds ICAR project, a theoretical approach to predicting which ocean worlds have the greatest potential to host life and to revealing evidence for that extant life to future space missions.
Alison Murray
Desert Research Institute
http://www.dri.edu/directory/4776-alison-murray
Alison is a molecular microbial ecologist and biological oceanographer at the Desert Research Institute (DRI). Her research focuses on genomic and molecular biological approaches to describe the diversity of life and to understand the evolutionary history, ecological roles, and physiology of free-living and symbiotic microorganisms, several of which are considered to be at the extremes of where life exists. She has also developed new tools to study microorganisms in their natural environment, eliminating the need for cultivation in the lab. Murray has been involved in NASA's new Ocean Worlds program and was co-chair of the Europa Lander Science Definition Team.
Jacqueline Grebmeier
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies
Jacqueline Grebmeier is a Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences (UMCES), Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) in the USA. She holds a B.A. in Zoology (1977), a M.S. degree in Biology (1979), M.S. degree in Marine Affairs (1983), and a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography (1987). Following a postdoctoral position at the University of Southern California, she then spent 20 years at the University of Tennessee (1989-2008) before joining CBL in 2008. Her oceanographic research interests include pelagic-benthic coupling, benthic carbon cycling, and benthic faunal population structure in relation to ecosystem structure in polar marine systems. She has participated in more than 65 oceanographic cruises, primarily in the Arctic, acting as Chief Scientist on many of them. She has lead multiple interdisciplinary Arctic programs and is currently the lead scientist for the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) in the Arctic, which has been supported since 2010 by multiple agencies in the US and international collaborators in the Pacific Arctic Group. She was appointed by President Clinton to the US Arctic Research Commission from 2000-2003 and served as the US delegate and one of four Vice-Presidents to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) from 2006-2014. She has received multiple awards, including the Alaska Ocean Leadership Award from the Alaska SeaLife Center in 2015, the IASC Medal in 2015, the UMCES President’s Award for Excellence in Application of Science in 2017, and she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018.
Kathryn Pietro
Project Manager
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution